Dave Smith Instruments In The Spotlight With the OB-6 and Layne – Rachel Aiello

You can find the full interview on DSI's website here.

"Formally introduced to synthesis by Suzanne Ciani as her studio assistant, Layne (real name Rachel Aiello) composes field recordings, abstract auditory textures, and rhythmic concrète churns into a hypnotic aural terrain reminiscent of the inceptive work from her seminal female forebears in experimental electronics. Recently released on Karl O’Connor’s legendary Downwards Records, she displays her proficiency in creating a vast soundscape and spatial atmosphere. Most recently, she has performed a collaborative set with Suzanne Ciani for Always On, a Moogfest hosted streaming series.

We chatted with Rachel about how she’s using the OB-6."



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You can find previous posts featuring DSI's Spotlight series here.

Dave Smith Instruments In The Spotlight With the REV2 and Yair Albeg Wein

You can find the full interview on DSI's website here.

"Israeli-born Yair Albeg Wein represents the new generation of composers who combine their unique traditional musical training with the gift of technological shrewdness. Yair grew up in a house with a long tradition in the arts: his mother a graduate pianist and educator of the prestigious Warsaw Music Academy, his uncle Yossi Wein, a world-renowned cinematographer and filmmaker. Since a young age, Yair has shown exceptional musical abilities, from playing the recorder to wining first prize competitions for classical guitar in which he was rated as the best guitar player in Israel for his age group. Yair attended the Jerusalem Music Academy.

Yair has credits spanning Israel to London to Hollywood. His scores are featured in Israeli TV shows, feature films, and worldwide advertisement campaigns. Yair’s music is also featured in some of the most exclusive catalogs of the industry including Sonic Symphony, Really Slow Motion, Demented Sound Mafia, and Warner Bros.

We chatted with Yair about how he’s using the Prophet Rev2."

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You can find previous posts featuring DSI's Spotlight series here.

Dave Smith Instruments In The Spotlight With the Prophet-6 and Dan Zank

You can find the full interview on DSI's website here.

"Starting out his career primarily as a jazz piano player, Dan Zank has toured the world with a host of artists ranging from Maynard Ferguson to Blood Sweat & Tears. Dan eventually left behind a life on the road to work as a full-time composer for Yessian Music. Through Yessian, Dan has composed music for television, including show themes, live events, and commercial music for many global brands. He has also worked extensively in the Themed Entertainment and Experiential industries, scoring attractions in multiple cities throughout the United States, UAE, China, and Europe.

His work has been recorded or performed by The Budapest Film Orchestra, Bratislava Symphony Orchestra and Choir, Seattle Music Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony and St. Louis Symphony orchestras, and he has worked in some of the most famed studios throughout the world, including recent work at Abbey Road Studios in London, and George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch in California.

Dan’s work as a composer and arranger has garnered a multitude of awards, including New York Festivals awards, Addy awards, two London International Awards, a Telly Award, an AMP Award, and multiple D Show Awards. Dan has also received Best Original Score and #1 Music/Sound Design Chart accolades from Creativity, Screen, and Shoot Magazines.

We chatted with Dan about how he’s using the Prophet-6 and OB-6."

You can find previous posts featuring DSI's Spotlight series here.

Dave Smith Instruments In The Spotlight With the Prophet-6 and Warren Walker of The Kandinsky Effect

You can find the full interview on DSI's website here.

"Warren Walker was raised in the rural Northern California gold rush town of Grass Valley. He became enamored with music at a young age, and by his early teens he was performing on jazz and blues gigs with his guitarist father, Thomas Walker.

Walker earned a BM from the University of Nevada’s rigorous jazz program, where he studied with stellar musicians such as Peter Epstein, David Ake, Hans Halt, Andy Heglund, and Larry Engstrom. After graduation, Walker lit out for Europe to pursue his career as a musician. In February, 2007, he settled in Paris, France and quickly forged ties with some of that city’s most adventurous players. In Paris, Walker formed the Warren Walker Trio (renamed The Kandinsky Effect), and began performing and touring internationally with it and other projects.

Walker maintains an international presence through various groupings with international tour schedules; including The Kandinsky Effect, oddAtlas, Collektor, and TwinLux.

We chatted with Warren about how he’s using the Prophet-6."

You can find previous posts featuring DSI's Spotlight series here.

Dave Smith Instruments In The Spotlight With the Rev2 and Alex Kopp of Third Eye Blind

You'll find the full interview here.

"Alex Kopp is a producer, composer, and musician who originally hails from Canton, Ohio, and is keyboardist for the band Third Eye Blind. He’s also working on various projects for TV and film, and is producing a variety of other artists.

We chatted with Alex about how he’s using the Prophet Rev2."

You can find previous posts featuring DSI's Spotlight series here.

Dave Smith Instruments In The Spotlight With the Pro 2 and Kush Arora

You can find the full interview here.

"San Francisco-based Kush Arora has been producing eclectic and electrifying underground music for a diverse audience for nearly 20 years. Whether he’s making Indo Caribbean Dancehall, reworking kuduro, or creating ambience, his signature sound traverses genre lines and connects dots few dare to combine. His project Only Now assimilates his many influences, including Buraka Som Sistema, Wax Trax Records, and film soundtracks. As Kush puts it, Only Now’s roots are firmly planted in unbridled experimentation and a wall of sonic low end. With his 10-plus record discography, Kush’s work has been featured in The Wire, Spin Magazine, Fact Magazine, and many other avenues in the tropical bass, dub, dancehall, and Indian music scenes. His remixes and collaborations span artists as diverse as Balkan Beat Box and Gappy Ranks.

As Only Now he’s released 4 EPs, with 2017 sharing Timeslave from Mexico City’s Infinite Machine and Elements on vinyl from France’s POLAAR Sounds. He’s currently collaborating with N1L (Berlin, UIQ), Lechuga Zafiro (Uruguay), and Abstractar (an Oakland metal act). Only Now’s performance highlights include playing alongside Kode 9, Dj Lag, Shambala Festival (CA), Low End Theory, SXSW, with a recent performance at the Gray Area Foundation for the Arts

We chatted with Kush about how he’s using the Pro 2."

You can find previous posts featuring DSI's Spotlight series here.

Dave Smith Instruments In the Spotlight With the Prophet 12 and Ivan Blomqvist

The next interview in Dave Smith Instruments In the Spotlight series is up with Ivan Blomqvist here.

"Ivan Blomqvist is a Swedish pianist/keyboardist, songwriter/composer based in Oslo, Norway. Working mainly with jazz and improvised music, he has a bachelor’s degree in improvisation and jazz from the highly respected Jazz department at the University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. He is currently working as a keyboardist and songwriter in the Future Soul band Rohey, as well as running his own Jazz projects: Ivan Blomqvist 3 Feat Hanna Paulsberg and the club sensation, Mozambique!

We chatted with Ivan about how he’s using the Prophet 12."

You can find previous posts featuring DSI's Spotlight series here.

Dave Smith Instruments In The Spotlight With the Prophet-6 and Jordan Lawlor of M83

The next in DSI's In the Spotlight interview series is up with Jordan Lawlor and the Prophet-6 here.

"Jordan Lawlor is a producer and composer based in Los Angeles, touring and recording with the group M83 as well as with his own project, J. Laser.

We chatted with him about how he’s using the Prophet-6."

You can find previous posts featuring DSI's Spotlight series here.

Dave Smith Instruments In The Spotlight With the OB-6 and Kat Day

Read the full interview with Kat Day on Dave Smith Instruments here.

"Kat Day is one half of the British Berlin-based audio visual duo, The KVB. Originally formed in London in 2010, the pair is known for their prolific output, and has released 5 albums and a number of EPs. In the past year alone they have toured Asia, Latin America, and Europe, along with festival shows in South Africa and San Francisco. They are currently working on their follow up to 2016’s Of Desire which was recorded at Geoff Barrow’s (Portishead, Beak) studio in Bristol and released on Barrow’s label, Invada Records.

We chatted with Kat about how she’s using the OB-6."

You can find previous posts featuring DSI's Spotlight series here.

Dave Smith Instruments In the Spotlight With the Prophet-6 and Tom Darom

You can find the full interview with Tom Darom here.

"Tom Darom is an Israeli producer, composer and keyboardist based in Tel Aviv, Israel. She tours and records with the Balkan Beat Box as keyboardist and programmer, is A&R/creative director for APE Records, and is also a composer for TV, film, and media. Her recent work, Shadow of Truth, is a 4-part documentary on Netflix. She received the DocAviv Best Original Music award in 2016 for the documentary Death in the Terminal. The movie also won the Best Israeli Film award.

“I live in an environment that is a melting pot of cultures, rhythms, religions, languages, and conflict. This obviously filters into the art that’s produced here. Many of my scores cover these issues. Much of the music I produce, and artists I work with are an intricate weave of eastern and western influences. Our generation is fortunate to be able to search for what defines our complex identity. From this a new, hybrid middle-eastern sound has been born.

We chatted with Tom about how she’s using the Prophet-6."

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You can find previous posts featuring DSI's Spotlight series here.

Dave Smith Instruments In The Spotlight With Reek Havok

You'll find an interview with Reek Havok on DSI's website here.

"Reek Havok is an award-winning sound designer, studio musician and audio technologist with five platinum records to his credit. Under the guise of Sounds Amazing, he has brought exciting and engaging sounds to clients like Microsoft, Experience Music Project, Disney, Universal Studios, Seoul Korea Worlds Fair, Museum of Miniatures, Stax Museum of American Soul Music, numerous recording artists, and more. With a strong background in audio and technology, Reek Havok continues to create engaging and immersive sound design to VR and AR applications, games, musical instrument sounds, and presets.

His latest project Robot Clan utilized the DSI Character Eurorack module for guitar processing and other sounds for their first release Over Posting. Reek owns Prophet ’08 and Mopho desktop synths as well as DSI’s Character, Feedback, and Curtis Filter Eurorack modules. We chatted with Reek about how he’s using his DSI gear." Read the full interview here.

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You can find previous posts featuring DSI's Spotlight series here.

Dave Smith Instruments In the Spotlight with the Prophet Rev2 and Jedidiah Lachmann

You can find the latest interview in Dave Smith Instruments In the Spotlight series here.

"Originally from Indiana, Jedidiah Lachmann has lived in California, New York, and Auckland, New Zealand before settling in Nashville. He’s a multi-instrumentalist with experience playing a variety of genres. Over the years he’s played with many different artists including Eisley, Halfnoise, Leeland, Abandon, Seabird, Cole Taylor, Lainey Wilson, Brady Toops, and others. Jedidiah was a part of a band called The Ember Days for six years and recorded two albums and two EPs as part of that group. Currently he splits his time between producing in Nashville and touring with several different artists.

We chatted with him about how he’s using the Prophet Rev2."


You can find previous posts featuring DSI's Spotlight series here.

Dave Smith Instruments In the Spotlight with the Mopho X4 and Fabian Almazan

You'll find the full interview at Dave Smith Instruments here.

"Recently nominated for a Grammy for his work on Terence Blanchard’s Breathless, pianist and composer Fabian Almazan found his musical roots as a child in his homeland of Havana where he first became involved in the classical piano tradition. When his parents could not afford to pay for private piano lessons and having migrated to Miami, Florida, pianist Conchita Betancourt was gracious enough to impart free lessons. Thanks to Mrs. Betancourt’s exceeding generosity, Fabian was able to audition for the New World School of the Arts High School in Miami where he studied from 1998 to 2002. In 2002 Fabian was selected for the piano chair in the National 2002 Grammy High School Jazz Combo. The following year, Almazan attended the newly up and running Brubeck Institute fellowship program based in northern California where he studied with Mark Levine and performed with Dave Brubeck and Christian McBride. In 2003, Fabian moved to New York City to study with Kenny Barron at the Manhattan School of Music..."

You can find previous posts featuring DSI's Spotlight series here.

Dave Smith Instruments In The Spotlight With the OB-6 and Sunshine Jones

You'll find the full interview at Dave Smith Instruments here.

"Sunshine Jones is an electronic musician from San Francisco, California. He is a production machine that seems to be in constant motion. Hand made releases, full fledged vinyl releases, customized eurorack modules, hand built synthesizers, tutorial videos, consultations with manufacturers, beta testing, and non-stop encouragement for people who are curious about getting their heads together about playing live electronic music.

From 1991 – 2005 he was one half of Dubtribe Sound System. While Dubtribe continues to perform periodically at festivals and special engagements, Sunshine travels the world solo these days playing 100% live improvisational electronic music, and hosting the Play Live! seminars where he discusses how to play live music as an electronic artist, and what it means. His aim is to encourage people to get started regardless of what gear they have. But his focus always comes back to doing it without a computer, without a tablet, and without a phone. The idea is to play live, and get into the moment. He is also a well-loved, and well-traveled DJ.

He has produced, recorded and released music on Jive, BMG, Universal, Defected, King Street, Oh! Stockholm, Cosmic Disco, Treehouse Muzique, and dozens of other indie labels. He also operates the San Francisco-based record label, The Urgency Of Change. For more information about Sunshine Jones, visit his website."

You can find previous posts featuring DSI's Spotlight series here.

Dave Smith Instruments In the Spotlight with the Prophet-6 and Aidan Carroll

You can find the latest installment of Dave Smith Instruments "In the Spotlight" series with Chevron and the Prophet 12 here.

"Aidan Carroll is an international touring artist, multi-instrumentalist and producer. He has toured and performed with such artists as Lisa Fischer, Melody Gardot, Fred Hersch, Donald Fagen, Warren Haynes, and Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds. As a NYC-based musician, Carroll is a top call for his exceptional bass playing and is quickly becoming known for his diverse work in the studio as a keyboardist, producer, and songwriter. Carroll has recently recorded with Omar Hakim, Lion Babe, Zhu, Kingdom, and done remixes for Anna Wise, Madison McFerrin, Denitia & Sene, and Tribe Called Quest. Aidan is currently at work on his second album which features him on all instruments, production, and vocals. We chatted with him about how he’s using the Prophet-6."

You can find previous posts featuring DSI's Spotlight series here.

Dave Smith Instruments In the Spotlight with the Prophet 12 and Chevron

You can find the latest in Dave Smith Instruments' "In the Spotlight" series with Chevron and the Prophet 12 here.

"Chevron is known for his work in many subgenres of electronic music. The two albums on Mike Paradinas’ Planet Mu label spanned IDM, breakcore, braindance, chiptune, dubstep, electro, and acid. As part of the current crop of artists spearheading the UK acid revival, Chevron has always made this genre a significant part of his output, with releases on 030303, Acid Waxa and Balkan vinyl. Chevron now resides in Reykjavík, Iceland and is working on two new albums which will be announced soon. For more info check out chevvers.com.

We chatted with him about how he’s using the Prophet 12."



You can find previous posts featuring DSI's Spotlight series here.

Dave Smith Instruments In The Spotlight with M83's Joe Berry and the OB-6

Click here for the full interview.

"Joe Berry is a member of M83 and joined them for their 2016 World Tour, playing piano, synth, ewi, and saxophone. In the off season, Joe is a freelance musician, composer, and educator, currently based in Los Angeles. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Jazz Studies with emphasis in both Saxophone Performance and Composition from Sacramento State University, and completed his Masters degree in Jazz and Improvisational Music at the University of Nevada, Reno in the Spring of 2012..."

You can find previous posts featuring DSI's Spotlight series here.

Dave Smith Instruments In The Spotlight with Raphaella and The Prophet-6

The latest installment of Dave Smith Instruments' In the Spotlight series is up with Raphaella and the Prophet-6. Click through for the full interview.

"Raphaella is a a triple-threat producer, writer and singer based in North London who’s vocal and vocal samples you may already be familiar with from a number of heavily supported releases at BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra. She’s been collaborating with a plethora of emerging and heavyweight talent such as Rudimental, Gorgon City and MNEK, Wilkinson, Armin Van Buuren, Watermat, Henri PFR, Dimension, Culture Shock, NVOY, Michael Calfan, MIST, Kideko, Jack Wins, Yungen, Friction, Dirtcaps, among others — recording and vocal producing the majority of her features from her studio in north London where she produces material for herself and other artists. Raphaella is also a Platinum and Gold selling songwriter. Her latest single, Turn Around, reached number 3 on the Hype Machine charts. Her songwriting for other Artists includes Yellow Claw’s Love & War, which amassed over 25 million Spotify streams, and K-pop EXO Thunder, whose EP Overdose was number 1 on USA Heat seekers Billboard chart and which recorded over 660,000 pre-orders, the highest number ever reached at that time. Her scores have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4."

You can find previous posts featuring DSI's Spotlight series here.

Dave Smith Instruments In the Spotlight with HAN LUIS CERA (MUTANT-THOUGHTS) and the Tempest

The latest Dave Smith Instruments "In the Spotlight" series features HAN LUIS CERA (MUTANT-THOUGHTS) and the Tempest.

"Mutant-Thoughts is an experimental alternative synth-rock band formed by Han Luis Cera (vocals and synths), Joshua Lennox-Hilton (bass and backing vocals) and Tom Pearmain (drums), with an electronic, eclectic, eerie vibe, and strong rhythms, as well as beautiful melodies. On a constant search for new sounds, grooves, harmonies and textures, Mutant-Thoughts have worked really hard on building original and interesting sound. Using the Poly Evolver and Tempest, together with bass and drums, this band is able to transform our surroundings into a completely new reality which is perceived with detail in the music. They released their first album with electronic versions of what they do live, and now they are releasing their first studio EP on the 7th of September in the UK and will be released on BandCamp."

You can find previous posts featuring DSI's Spotlight series here.

Dave Smith Instruments In the Spotlight with Zak Riles and the Pro 2

Dave Smith Instruments' latest "In the Spotlight" interview is up with Zak Riles and the Pro 2 here.

You can find previous posts featuring DSI's Spotlight series here.